HOW TO RECOGNIZE FAKE CIGARS

With the increase in the value of cigars and their spread among people, the presence of counterfeit cigars on the market has increased dramatically. Very often unsuspecting tourists return to their homeland after their vacation in Cuba, or in neighboring countries, with suitcases full, unfortunately, of skilfully counterfeited cigars. Usually when we talk about fake cigars we refer to Cuban cigars, in fact brands like Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta and especially Cohiba are the main victims of counterfeiting.

The first step to avoid scam is to carefully analyze the box starting from the lid. One of the most easily recognizable signs of the falof the product is the presence of a transparent lid, in fact, for any brand of Cuban cigars, packs with a glass or plexiglass lid are non-existent. The second aspect to observe is the cuno (stamp with information of the cigars, written in ink, in fact if this is not present then the box is to be judged immediately false, on the back of the box must also be present the stamp in focus (in the stamps of the counterfeits there are imperfections and are not in low relief). After then you have move on to the analysis of the Habanos seal which must always be placed strictly at the top right. Remaining in the field of seals, the government seal must also be present (seal with green background present in all the packs) that if illuminated with an ultraviolet light must bring out the Cuban logo and usually must present a hologram in bright colors with an additional bar code and this makes it very difficult to counterfeit. Moving on to the structure of the box you must always check the invoice of the walls, which must have a well-kept and imperfect wood.

After analyzing the box, we move on to analyzing the cigar. The first element to be observed is the anilla which must be well made (in the Cohiba brand anilla there are additional holograms and the brand's writings are in relief. The second aspect is the observation of the cigar head, in the original ones the head is regular and without obvious ribs. The third step is to analyze the filling of the cigar, it must not have holes inside and must not drop pieces of tobacco (otherwise it means that the cigar has been filled with chopped tobacco) Finally, it is essential to check the invoice of the "head" which must show the sign of the three-round closure of tobacco.